CU Boulder engineers invent cooling 'metamaterial'

A team of University of Colorado engineers has developed a metamaterial that has the ability to cool objects even under direct sunlight with zero energy and water consumption.

Officials on the Boulder campus say the metamaterial — an engineered material with properties not found in nature — can be used as an air conditioning system, and supplementary cooling material for thermoelectric plants, according to a news release.

The material, which is slightly thicker than aluminum foil, cools objects beneath it by reflecting sunlight back into space while also allowing the object to shed its own heat through a process called passive radiative cooling.

To make the material, researchers embedded visibly-scattering but infrared-radiant glass microspheres into a polymer film and then added a thin, silver coating underneath in order to achieve maximum spectral reflectance.

It can be manufactured in rolls, which makes it economical.

"We feel that this low-cost manufacturing process will be transformative for real-world applications of this radiative cooling technology," said CU professor Xiaobo Yin, who is co-director of research on the project.

Researchers say that the material can also be used to improve the efficiency and life span of solar panels. Panels can overheat in direct sunlight, which hampers their ability to convert solar rays into electricity.

Advertisement

Yin — along with Gang Tan, an associate professor in the University of Wyoming, and Ronggui Yang, a professor of mechanical engineering at CU — received a $3 million grant in 2015 to conduct their research. They are currently seeking a patent on their invention.

Billionaires, entertainers and athletes alike announced their intentions to pursue the Los Angeles Clippers with varying degrees of seriousness Wednesday, proving the longtime losers will be quite a prize if the NBA is able to wrest control of the team away from Donald Sterling after his lifetime ban for racist remarks. Full Story

Louie, who (like Louis) is a New York comic and a divorced father of two daughters, knows struggle and angst and cloudy wonderment. He views life through eyes with a stricken look, dwelling in a state of comfortable dread. Full Story